Abortion executive order today, states prepare to sue

Barack Obama will initiate his biggest kickback on health care reform today. The executive order clarifying that ObamaCare can't fund abortions will be signed by the president at a private ceremony this afternoon. Bart Stupak and other pro-life House Democrats will be reportedly be in attendance. The signing won't be open to the press, presumably so the feathers of Obama's pro-choice allies aren't ruffled any further.

Meanwhile immediately after Obama signed health care reform into law yesterday, attorney generals representing 13 different states filed a lawsuit.

"We are convinced that this legislation is fundamentally flawed as a matter of constitutional law, that it exceeds the scope of proper constitutional authority of the federal government and tramples upon the rights and prerogatives of states and their citizens," David Rivkin, Jr., an attorney representing 13 of the states, told ABC News.

The challenges to the legislation focus on the mandate that requires an individual to buy health insurance. The states are also worried about the extent to which the statute imposes a financial burden -- in resources and personnel -- on them.

The states headed to court are Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington. Their case specifically focuses on the unconstitutional individual mandate, but their underlying concern may be something very different. If ObamaCare stays law, states will see their Medicaid bills skyrocket as people become eligible for subsidies. After health care reform was implemented in Massachusetts in 2006, the state was nearly driven to bankruptcy and was only saved by an injection of federal funds. The same could happen in every state across the nation if the attorneys general aren't successful.

The lawsuit represents the most significant challenge to the federal government by the states since the Civil War.